History’s Turning Points: Who Didn’t Discover America II March 23, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Exploration History Lead: Historical study often helps reveal twists in the human journey. Consider history’s turning points: who really discovered America. Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts Content: Setting aside legendary, ethnic, and national enthusiasts, there are basically three candidates in the race for European discovery of the Western Hemisphere. Prior to the voyages of Columbus, who clearly laid the groundwork for the genocidal destruction of native-American culture and the colonization by Europeans of the western isles, the second group to settle parts of America were Norsemen from Scandinavia. Until the 1800s, most scholars confined the Norse sagas firmly to the realm of legend. Then archeological discoveries made it clear that part of their narrative was true. The first to land in the West was Bjani Herjolfsson who missed his landing on Greenland and briefly touched Labrador. He shared his discovery with Leif Ericson, and in several attempts the Vikings tried to settle the flat, wooded country they called Vineland, but the Norse were not colonizers. They lacked the capital necessary to establish permanent settlements and soon cold, wolves, and hostile natives caused them to abandon their attempts after about a dozen years. Download [71.43 KB]
History’s Turning Points: Who Didn’t Discover America I March 22, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Exploration History Lead: Historical study often helps reveal twists in the human journey. Consider history’s turning points: who really discovered America. Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: The ongoing debate surrounding Columbus Day, the annual celebration in the United States of that fateful dawn in October 1492 when Italian explorer, in service to the Spanish crown, Christopher Columbus, made landfall in the Bahamas, is often quite lively. Yet, in reality this is essentially a Euro-centric argument. Scholars or ethnic advocates exercise their theories and marshal their evidence over which European or eastern explorers “discovered America.” Surprisingly, there are not a few ideas about who beat the Genoese sea captain to the Western hemisphere and they often originate with ethnic groups and their cheer leaders. Legendary black Africans were said to have made it to western shores in 1500 BCE followed by Phoenicians in 600 BCE and Roman explorers in 64 CE. One of the most interesting conjectures is that of a Chinese expedition led by Hoei-shin, sailing east across the Pacific in the year 499. The exotic legend of the Irish cleric St. Brendan who, with 17 monks, discovered a western island where birds actually spoke Latin before piloting their Celtic boat covered with skins back to Ireland. Download [71.19 KB]
John Cabot, Explorer II November 2, 2019PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITBritish History, European History, Exploration History, Italian History Lead: In the spring of 1497, John Cabot, an Italian explorer in the service of King Henry VII of England, sailed west from Bristol, England to find a shorter route to the riches of China. Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: Cabot had tried to secure backing from the Spanish but Christopher Columbus was the dominant figure in exploration in the wake of his successful voyages to the Caribbean and the largely unknown Cabot had to turn to the English for financial support. Read more →
John Cabot, Explorer I November 1, 2019PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITEuropean History, Exploration History, Italian History Lead: Five years after Columbus’ epic voyage of discovery, another Italian sailed across the North Atlantic in search of a passage to China. Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: John Cabot was probably born in Columbus’ hometown of Genoa at about the same time as his famous contemporary. He grew up in the Republic of Venice and by 1484 he had married and was engaged in the buying and selling of real estate. By the 1490s Cabot was a sailing master and had moved into commercial shipping of spices between the Middle East and Europe. It was a lucrative business. Spices, particularly pepper, cloves, and nutmeg, were household necessities in a pre-refrigeration era. One of their uses was to disguise the flavor of rotten meat. Read more →
Cook-Peary North Pole Competition July 25, 2019PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Exploration History, Geography Lead: In 1909 Robert Peary and Frederick Cook claimed to have discovered the North Pole. Their competing assertions form one of history’s mysteries. Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: They began this saga as friendly associates. Peary hired Cook as a physician on a Greenland expedition in 1891, and the Doctor unflappably set the bones of his leader’s legs after an accident on the shipboard part of the journey. They soon became competitors, however, in the race to the North Pole, which was made extremely complex because unlike the land-bound South Pole, the position of 90 North sits on drifting sea ice. Download [69.09 KB]
Lewis and Clark Expedition April 17, 2001PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Exploration History, Native American History Lead: Ocean in view, oh! The Joy. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: "Great joy in camp... We are view of the ocean... This great Pacific Ocean which we have been so long anxious to See." Thus William Clark announced of the end of their long trek, but this entry in his journal on November 7, 1805 was wrong. As he was to find out, he was actually viewing the huge estuary of the Columbia River whose salty and brackish waters stretch 20 miles inland from its mouth in present day Washington state. Read more →
Richard Byrd to the North Pole II December 13, 1999PermalinkMetasebia TessemaToday's AMITAmerican History, Exploration History, Geography Lead: For decades Richard Evelyn Byrd was credited as being the first to fly to over the North Pole. It was his lifetime dream, but in recent years scholarly skepticism regarding his claim has begun to cast doubt on his achievement. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: Born in 1888 in Winchester, Virginia Richard Evelyn Byrd had aristocratic roots stretching back to the early days of Virginia, and if one considers his maternal ancestor Pocahontas, further than that. His brother was Governor and Senator Harry Flood Byrd, who for four decades dominated state politics through his political creation, the Byrd machine. An adventurous child, Byrd as a young man was captured by the possibility of exploring the poles among the few remaining virgin areas on the planet. He served as a Naval Squadron Commander during WWI and became a naval aviator in 1918. In 1925 Byrd helped lead a scientific expedition to Greenland sponsored by Navy and the National Geographic Society. Download
Richard Byrd to the North Pole I December 13, 1999PermalinkMetasebia TessemaToday's AMITAmerican History, Exploration History, Geography Lead: In the early twentieth century explorers, scientists, and aviators responded to the challenge to explore the ends of the earth. One brave and ambitious adventurer was Richard Evelyn Byrd. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: During the early twentieth century nations planned and funded expeditions to two of the last remaining unexplored regions on the planet – the North Pole and the South Pole. These last great prizes became a competition to see who could get there first and claim the honor for their nation. The footrace to the North Pole was won by American Robert Peary in 1909, although there is controversy among experts about whether Peary actually was the first or just simply reached the coordinates of the pole. In 1911, Norwegian Roald Amundsen claimed the South Pole in an historic competition which resulted in tragedy for the British team that dogged him close behind. Download
